Talk:Short S.38

Production

Just some notes (RNAS Serials):

• 1 - (S.86) Delivered December 1913
• 2 - (S.38) Short-Sommer type rebuilt from S.28
• 3 - (S.78) a rebuild of the triple-twin (S.39)
• 28 - (S.55) (70hp Gnome)
• 34 - (S.61) (50hp later 80hp Gnome)
• 62 - (S.66) (50hp Gnome)
• 63 - (S.67) (50hp Gnome)
• 64 - (S.76) (80hp Gnome)
• 65 - (S.75) (80hp Gnome)
• 66 - (S.77) a rebuild of msn S.28 Somer type.(80hp Gnome) fitted with a Maxim gun.
• 152 - (S.89) built at Eastchurch, also known as the Short "Sociable" and was fitted with dual controls (80hp Gnome engine).
• 904 - (S.58) impressed from McClean (his No.14) had been rebuilt from S.32 (McClean No. 8), delivered August 1914.
• 1580-1591 - 12 built by Pemberton-Billing at Woolston with 80hp Gnome engines, delivered between November 1915 and and March 1916.
• 3143-3148 - 6 built by White & Thompson at Middleton-on-Sea with 80hp Gnome engines, delivered in November and December 1915.
• 8434-8439 - 6 built by Norman Thompson Flight Company at Middleton-on-Sea with 80hp Gnome engines, delivered between December 1915 and February 1916.
• 8530-8541 - 12 built by White & Thompson at Middleton-on-Sea with 80hp Gnome engines, delivered in March and April 1916.

So that makes 12 Shorts built including rebuilds, 12 Pemberton-Billing-built and 24 built by White & Thomson/Norman Thompson makes 48 (not sure if they were any pure civvy ones). MilborneOne (talk) 19:02, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

Thanks, All good stuff, the redesignation of the rebuilt S.32 is especially interesting. Is #2 'S.38 a rebuid of S.28' a typo or apossible confusion? Barnes says the original S.38 was built because S.28 was 'accumulating flying time' (read knackered?), but has it as a different airframe. S. 34 is described as an S.27-type with extra tankage. There are a couple of other items that don't quitegree with Barnes but thesere just mfns for adaptations- the tripletin & S.32, so no tmystey aircraft. Both numbers are tentativly assigned to a string of abreviations I think mean tractor seaplane, non folding. I suppose it'll all come out in the wash, given time.TheLongTone (talk) 20:06, 1 April 2012 (UTC) TheLongTone (talk) 20:06, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

S.28 crashed (not for the first time! on 1 May 1911 and was beyond economical repair but the Admiralty authorised use of an imprest fund provided by McClean for a total rebuild of S.28 Shorts allocated a new msn S.38 but Samson continued to call it Naval Biplane 2 because it used the engine and parts of S.28. As well as being the first aircraft to fly from a moving ship it also flown later by Winston Churchill. It was wrecked in January 1915. Mainly from Bruces notes how much was original we probably will not known. MilborneOne (talk) 20:19, 1 April 2012 (UTC)

So for 'accumulated flying hours' read 'crashed too many times'. You can't trust anybody. I'm thinking of doing the S.80 The Nile, Barnes' weights and wing area are clearly wrong, giving a wing loading of nearly 7 lb/sq ft, so I dug out Lewis's British Aircraft 1806-1914, who lists it as the s.70 and descrbes the modified S.32.Time for a break, I think! TheLongTone (talk) 20:44, 1 April 2012 (UTC)